“What’s to be done?” asked Jack. “We’ll have to wait until we hear the noise again, and then we can tell from which direction it comes. Suppose, while we’re waiting, you girls just tell us what you heard.”
They had all heard something different, it developed. At least, they all had a different impression of the noise.
Cora described it as a “trembling roar.”
Bess said it was a rumble, as though a heavy wagon had passed in front of the bungalow.
Belle said it reminded her of a deep, heavy sound, such as she had once heard in a blast furnace.
It was reserved for Hazel to describe accurately the noise, though none of them knew her description was correct until afterward.
“It was like a factory or machine shop next door,” said Paul’s sister. “It seemed to shake the bungalow as though heavy machinery were working.”
“It must be the waterfall,” decided Jack. “Only a large body of water, tumbling down into some chasm, could make a noise like that. There’s no machinery around here. Besides, the waterfall is bigger than ever now, on account of the rain. It must be that.”
“It wasn’t!” declared Cora, though when pressed for reasons to bolster up her denial she could give none. “It wasn’t that sort of noise at all,” she affirmed. “It was more like——”
“What’s that?” asked Belle so suddenly that the other girls jumped nervously.